Billionaire’s Climate Fix
Mike Cannon-Brookes, co-founder and CEO of Atlassian, on July 3, 2019.
Photographer: Karen Dias/BloombergGood morning from Sydney. It’s Ed here with the news you need to start your day.
Today’s must-reads:
• Billionaire’s solar farm bet
• Assange plea deal
• AI threat to power grids
Mike Cannon-Brookes, the billionaire co-founder and CEO of Atlassian, has a grand vision to fix the world’s climate crisis. In a wide-ranging interview with my colleague Brian Kahn, he discusses a seemingly “insane” plan to build the world’s largest solar farm in Australia and send the power to Asia via an undersea cable.
Gina Rinehart has amassed a 5.82% stake in Lynas Rare Earths Ltd. via her private company Hancock Prospecting Ltd. The billionaire mining magnate and Hancock became substantial shareholders of the Sydney-listed firm on Friday, according to a Lynas statement sent Tuesday evening.
US officials are considering a request from the Australian government to strike a deal with Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, under which he would enter a felony guilty plea and possibly return directly to Australia, according to a person familiar with the matter.